Welcome in - Come Clothe Yourself With Compassion and Be Eternally In-Style! Imagine - Imagine no one has said your name in years, no one has hugged you in decades, no one knows you have died. Imagine 80,000 Women, Children, Teenagers and Men in Los Angeles Alone. Now, blessed are you that weep and mourn with us while grieving your own compulsions, illusions, brokenness, failures, obsessions, loneliness, "homelessness" and addictions. One day, you too shall laugh! Subscribe! top right column.

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Thursday, April 3, 2008

“Sleepy Sidewalks” Reserved for Los Angeles Homeless

Not long ago, Kenneth Johnson, 29, lived in a West Los Angeles condominium with his wife and three children and earned $4,000 a month as a forklift operator. Now he is unemployed and divorced, and beds down each night on a grimy sidewalk in downtown’s 50-square-block Skid Row. Mr. Johnson made his way to Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles because of the ease in finding food, shelter and services there ranging from the Midnight Mission and Union Rescue Mission to Home Boy Industries and many others.

Since last October, there has been good news for Los Angeles homeless people and recently shared with us while passing out food and spiritual supplies on the streets in downtown. Homeless men and women are now allowed to sleep on sidewalks from 9PM until 6AM as long as they are not blocking doorways or driveways. Once the city of LA builds 1,250 housing units for the homeless they will again be able to enforce a 1968 ordinance banning sleeping on sidewalks. There are an estimated 73,000 to 93,000 homeless on the streets of LA depending on the report you peruse. Thus, 73, 000 homeless (using the lower of the two) will still be subject to tickets and arrests, if and when those 1,250 units are built.

For those unfamiliar with the issue, on October 10, 2007, a court found the city of Los Angeles guilty of cruel and unusual punishment, because people without homes can not be expected to walk 24 hours a day. The city of LA appealed the decision and this news is how the case was settled. For now, the homeless in LA have one less thing to worry about when they lay their heads down to sleep. The police can not wake them up to give them a ticket or tell them to find someplace else to sleep. For the time being, Los Angeles homeless can sleep a bit easier, if only they are able to get up and move on before 6AM without an alarm clock to wake them.______

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Pope Francis: The Eucharist and Caring for the Poor Top Priority of the Church and Priests

Pope Francis said on September 9, 2013, "Looking after the poor should not be the work of only 'specialists', but engaged in by all members of the Church. It should also be part of the training of priests."

Time to Serve from Los Angeles to New York

Followers

Lucky Losers Rest in Thee

"Let now the strong and the mighty laugh at us, but let us poor and needy confess unto Thee, O God." St. Augustine

Robert F. Kennedy

When asked by David Frost what people are put on earth for, RFK replied, “If you’ve made some contribution to someone else, to improve their life, and make their life a little more livable, a little more happy, I think that’s what you should be doing.”

The Wealthy & Middle Class Sin of Self-righteousness may not be easily Seen or Confessed

"One of the temptations of upper-middle class life is to create sharp edges of our moral sensitivities and it allows a comfortable confusion about sin and virtue. The difference between rich and poor is not that the rich sin is more than the poor’s sin, but that the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue. When the poor sin, they [the poor] call it sin; when they see holiness, they identify it as such. The intuitive clarity is often absent from the wealthy, and that absence easily leads to the atrophy of the moral sense." Fr. Henri Nouwen

Rahner Rant

"Preaching the Gospel, ministering to the poor, defending the underprivileged, following Jesus in this sense, prayer, a mystical sphere of one’s own existence, are just as much part of the priestly office as – and I do not mean it in a pejorative [negative] sense – being able to say Mass.” Karl Rahner

Christ in a "Distressing Disguise"

"Christ remains with us not only through the Mass but in the 'distressing disguise' of the poor. To live with the poor is a contemplative vocation, for it is to live in the constant presence of Jesus" - Dorothy Day, +1980

Rejected and Despised

One loser hanging out with other losers. "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy."
Jesus, the King of Kings and also Lord of all losers. Homeless, despised, rejected, misunderstood, falsely accused, crucified and counted with criminals. Behold your King.

There will only be one test as to whether we will go to heaven or not!

"If we think we are following him but are not praying or keeping the commandments, with the Jesus who tells us unequivocally that at the last judgment there will only be one test as to whether we will go to heaven or not – namely, how we responded to the poor during our lifetime." Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I. (see Saturday, February 23, 2008)

St. Bernadette in Desperation & Illness while being Homeless & Poor the Vision was Revealed

Confounding the wise, Saint Bernadette met the Blessed Mother in the darkness of being poor and homeless. She was both hated and despised as night surrounded ecstasy. “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”

Antonio Swears to the Truth

“This is the richest county in the richest state in the richest country in the history of the planet, yet almost 90,000 people do not have a roof over their heads. This is unacceptable.” Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa

Getting Ready for Judgement Day

"At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received. How much money we have made. How many great things we have done. We will be judged by - 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.'" Mother Teresa

Remembering we Worship a Homeless Man That we Know to be God Himself

Jesus was born to a migrant family, on the road, in a stable and homeless. His family remained homeless as they fled from King Herod. Jesus lived his life in public ministry as a thirty-something homeless male. He lived with 12 other homeless men. He died with no money to place his body in a tomb. It was purchased for him. He left this world in the same manner in which he came - homeless.

Mary, A Celestial Apparition or Model of Mercy

From Fatima and Lourdes to Mexico City, millions of pilgrims flock to Mary, our Blessed Mother. What does she require of her spiritual children? Does she need a spectacle of mystical and celestial adoration? Would it be more pleasing to her that we also follow her in lowliness and humbly participate in God’s mercy for the poor? Mary proclaims in Luke chapter one, “For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant… He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty… He has remembered his promise of mercy.”

A Country Estate of the Rich

A Country's State of the Poor

Veterans 2x as likely to be homeless – currently 141,000 homeless Vets – more troops than in Iraq

More than 1 million have served in the wars on terror since 9.11.01. 6,000 of those will become homeless. Veterans have a higher rate of homelessness, (HUD Homeless Report, Feb. 2007, www.huduser.org). The war in Iraq itself will produce 3,000 more homeless Vets.

The Prophet Amos Spoke up on Behalf of the Poor Nearly 3,000 Years Ago (800 BCE)

Amos warned the people their disregard for the poor was a bad idea. It would result in the destruction of their nation. Apparently there's a long history of God trying to get our attention in this regard. Approximately 830 years later, a lawyer asks Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" He hears the parable of the good Samaritan.

Harry (+2006), the Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor

Let the lowly hear and be glad. The Lord listens to their pleas; and to hearts broken, God is near, who will hear the cry of the poor. (Psalm 34) Harry's Photo - Courtesy of Fred S.

One All-American Food Line for the Poor

It's 10:00am, Jimmy sits first among 3.5 Million homeless women, children and men.

Help this summer for Jesus in the homeless to receive ice water bottles that we will deliver to 5 desert cities where daytime temperatur...

His Wisdom Confounds the Wise

The kingdom of God, sown like an insignificant seed at the burial of Jesus and his birth as an immigrant, a wandering Jew, a homeless man, a condemned criminal - has now grown into a tree whose branches embrace the cosmos and all that is in it through his resurrection. His name, known first to only a handful of followers, is now praised by people of every race and nation. His wisdom confounds the wise!

Discovering God in our own Poverty

When we are not afraid to confess our own poverty, we will be able to be with other people in theirs. The Christ who lives in our own poverty recognizes the Christ who lives in other people’s. Just as we are inclined to ignore our own poverty, we are inclined to ignore other’s. We prefer not to see people who are destitute, we do not like to look at people who are deformed or disabled, we avoid talking about people’s pains and sorrows, we stay away from brokenness, helplessness and neediness. By this avoidance we lose touch with the people through whom God is manifested to us. But when we have discovered God in our own poverty, we will lose our fear of the poor and go to them and meet God.Henri Nouwen

Grace Flows from Gratitude

Did "God shed His grace on thee?" The homeless in America have many things to teach us who think we are rich. When the last meal was not as good as usual, I am thankful for what I was given - grace flows from gratitude. When the house requires more work than usual, I am thankful for the shelter - grace flows from gratitude. When going to work becomes a complaint, I am thankful for the income - grace flows from graitude. When the mattress becomes less comfortable today than it was the night before, I am thankful for my bed - grace flows from gratitude. When my companions in life seem to bring more work than they bring joy, I am thankful for friends - grace flows from gratiude. The homeless in America have many things to teach us who think we are rich.